Argh

Grr. I go away for a few days and one of my favorite blogs disappears.

It is quite disturbing. He used to write fairly sarcastic things many of which were out of line with the politically correct line of thinking (and sometimes quite wrong, but who isn't, sometimes?), and at some point concerned citizens became, well, concerned and alerted the Powers That Be.

Suddenly he started sounding like a Stepford wife, saying that he has realized that he has been mean and wrong, but has seen the light now, and that he is doing this completely of his free will in order to become a better person, without any pressure from anyone, and deleted his blog.

This is scary. It would have been less scary if he wrote "shit, can't write anymore, gonna get in trouble". I kind of feel bad about questioning Ilkka's sudden change of worldview and personality, but you gotta admit that a radical personality change right after one's boss suggests sensitivity training might lead onlookers to draw a number of cynical conclusions.

In any case, he does not want any free speech campaigning on his behalf, and we've got to respect his wishes. I've seen people urging him to fight, but fighting is exactly the kind of thing that is easy to cheer on but sometimes hard to do. But I'll really miss the damn blog.

Somehow a quote from Walter Williams comes to my mind: "You say, "Williams, how can you get away with such political incorrectness?" It's easy. I'm a tenured professor, and I have diversified sources of income -- plus, I don't have much longer in this world." Not having much longer in this world does not sound like a good idea, but I sincerely wish Ilkka tenure and diversified sources of income.